It's a home where you can get lost in thought while you're lost in the yard.
The Catskills region of upstate New York has thousands of homes for sale across Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster counties. But there's one home in the region on the market that features an extensive stone maze.
And that property comes with a $10 million price tag.
The backyard of the 5,266-square-foot estate home at 390 Erpf Road in Arkville has one of the world's largest stone mazes, according to listing materials. Within the maze are bronze sculptures of figures from Greek myths, including Daedalus, Icarus, and the Minotaur.
Walking through that maze feels like you're "stepping into another world," the property's listing agent, Kathryn Johnson, said.
"It's like the wardrobe from Narnia," Johnson, of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, told Homes.com. "Every time I go in there, I get lost. And it flows so perfectly. You're coming across sculptures in the forest, and it fits seamlessly."
The home sits on a 280-acre lot
The property, known locally as "The Erpf Estate," features eight bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms with a fireplace, spiral staircase, and a cupola overlooking the 280-acre lot. Outside, the property has a pool with an 800-square-foot pool house, as well as a barn and tennis court.
The home got its name because it was built for Armand G. Erpf, an investment banker for the now-defunct New York City stock brokerage Loeb, Rhoades & Co. Erpf raised his children in the home. He died in February 1971.
Erpf's two grandchildren — Cornelia and Armand — own the home now, Johnson said. Cornelia and Armand have families and lives of their own and have already moved to Hawaii and the Hamptons, respectively, Johnson said. The grandchildren believe it's time for new owners to reimagine a use for their grandfather's property, Johnson said.
"They're excited for them to come in and do their thing and envision the property as they see it," she said. "They want to see what its next chapter [will] be."
The maze dates to the 1960s
The stone maze, completed in the 1960s, still stands in pristine condition, Johnson said. The family has fond memories of it, including the year grandson Armand was married in front of the structure, Johnson said.
In a 1969 interview with Time magazine, Armand G. Erpf explained why he wanted the maze built.
Erpf married Susan Mortimer in 1965 while still maintaining his career as an investment banker. A few years after the marriage, Erpf read the book "The Maze Maker" by British sculptor and architect Michael Ayrton. The book, published in 1967, inspired Erpf so much that he called him with a business proposition, he told the magazine.
"I just read your book," Erpf told Ayrton. "I want one of those."
Ayrton flew across the Atlantic and constructed the maze — all 1,680 feet of stone walls that sit between 6 and 8 feet tall. Ayrton called the piece the largest maze in the world and "the only one of stone since the fourth or fifth century B.C.”
All told, the motivation behind having that maze was to create "an esthetic experience," Erpf told Time.
The maze and its sculptures naturally stay in unblemished condition, but whoever buys the home will have to polish the bronze, Johnson noted. The home has a groundskeeping staff that maintains all of the acreage, Johnson said.
"You can’t get to the center of a maze by going straight for it," he said in the magazine interview. "You have to be indirect. The way to attain something is to go away from it. The maze is a spiritual truth.”